Shop smartly for online music

Shopping for 10 years ago was as easy as walking into your local CD/cassette shop, ask the shop assistant for the CD you’re looking for (or just find it yourself) and then take it to the checkout.

These days a lot has changed. Due to the internet market boom, music is now purchased and paid for per song, roughly 99c each and higher depending on the song you want. Buying music off the internet is actually quite a tedious task and requires a fair bit of patience as you use the search engine or just browse around the website. Also its very annoying when after sitting at your computer for an hour you realize they don’t have the song you’re looking for. Going to the shop would have made things so much quicker and easier. I’ve developed some strategies to help make your music shopping experience a little less stressful.

But first some Pros of buying music online.
Its fast – just find the song using the search engine, add to cart and then proceed to checkout and fill out your payment details.

Selection – Online shops tend to have a wider range of music for you to choose from, with hits from way back that aren’t sold at music shops anymore.
Preview function – you can preview each song before you purchase it.
Immediate download – You can get the song straight away after payment

And some Cons which are not necessarily bad but some important points to think of before you decide to purchase online

Paying over the internet – make sure that you are paying using a secure site.
Speed and connection – how fast is your internet speed and connection. Although music files are relatively small in size you can lose the download if you have a unsteady and slow connection.
Corrupt files – these have been extremely rare cases where the file you download is corrupt. This problem can usually be fixed by contacting customer service.

Some strategies to help you find exactly what you are looking for faster.

1. Write down on paper the song name and artist. If you are looking to download an entire album write down the name of the album and the year it was recorded.
2. You can find all this information by doing a quick background check
3. Head over to the online music website and type in the information in the required fields.
4. Skim through the results and choose the song you wish to purchase. IMPORTANT – preview the song if you can to make sure it is the right version. You don’t want to download a cover or a remix if you wanted the original.
5. Add to cart and then proceed to checkout OR continue shopping by repeating steps 1 and 2.
6. IMPORTANT – at the checkout carefully review the list of songs in your shopping cart. You don’t want to accidentally purchase something you don’t want.
7. Fill out your payment details. Make sure you are doing this on a secure site.
8. Once payment is made you can download your songs.
9. Enjoy!

Cheers and have a good online shopping experience

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Below is a list of online music stores with a wide range of music for you to choose from however the trial offers give you the best deal. Roughly 25 free MP3’s for free per trial.

Free 14 day trial with Rhapsody Unlimited.

RealOne SuperPass Free Trial

MP3's Unlimited $12.99

Get 5 free songs and a 14-day trial

Click here to get a free 14-day MP3 trial of

Music=Life: the Hot Topic Foundation

And below are some Music players
Apple Store

Download RealPlayer Plus Here

The new iPod nano. Now with video. From $169. Free shipping.

Special News, Special Deal

I found a really good website to buy from! Its called ebay’s Half.com. The name is exactly what it means. The prices here are cheaper than ebay so its worth having a look.

Cheers and have a good online shopping experience

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Bargain Hunting

Many of us shoppers love to go on what we call bargain hunting. A term used to describe the act of searching for the best price for a certain product. Here are a few tips how.

First, write down the name of the product you want and its full description. If its clothing, write down the size and be clear about it. For example American sizing are different to European and Asian sizing. If its kitchenware, note the pattern and engravings. Write down all details such as color, decorations, style and its recommended retail price, RRP, in its currency e.g. $US, $EU.

To get the RRP, do a general search using the item name eg- Guitar Hero III play station or bonds singlet chesty white, and see what the results come up with. The results should give you a rough estimate of the RRP. Now that’s down you can go bargain hunting!


Not sure where to start hunting?

Try my favorites for cheap goodies.

Click here for eBay!
shop.com
Classic Closeouts – Free Shipping
Tchibo.co.uk - A new experience every week


Cheers and have a good online shopping experience

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Phishing

Do you subscribe or receive newsletters from your online vendor? If so you need to be aware of phishing. Phishing is a term used to describe the act of obtaining personal and valuable information by pretending to be a safe seller. Phishing can come in forms of emails, snail mail, telephone calls and instant messaging.
Always check who the email is from. For example you subscribe to ebay’s newsletter. Is it from johnsmith@ebay.com or is it from johnsmith@someotherdomian.com
Which email address would you trust?

Shoppers should also be aware of link manipulation. Ask yourself where the link will take you. You can find out by rolling your mouse over the hyperlink. The address will appear in the lower left corner of the screen. Sometimes the link is very long due to programming requirements. The link is often safe if you see the domain name inside it.
For technical measures try to visit the website by manually typing in the domain address or use the bookmarked address.

Turn your firewall on. Sometimes firewalls and other virus protection programs can also detect phishing emails.

Companies tend to address their customers by name, so if you see a “Dear (insert company name) customer, it is quite possible that the email is a fake.

So for an a quick overview, you can prevent being caught phishing by slightly changing your browsing habits. Always check to see if you are being led to the domain name and look at the sender address. Type in the hyperlink if you can.

You can also do a quick background check using your Yahoo Toolbar. This is a free download and may even save you from becoming a phishing victim. You can download the toolbar here.

Cheers and have a good online shopping experience

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A list of places to get good and reliable firewall and virus protection software

CA - Anti-Spam
CA Anti-Virus 2008 - Fortify your PC with early, automatic defense against the latest viruses!
Panda Internet Security 2008 - $15 Discount Coupon

Shopping: Paying Safely

We’ve all heard of credit card fraud, security issues and identity fraud. These are some of the issues that start alarm bells ringing and stops people from clicking the ‘buy’ or ‘purchase’ button.

Being a customer, you’ve found the perfect item and have decided to buy. Before you fill out the order form and provide your personal details to the seller make sure that they are a reputable and trustworthy seller. Do a background check by typing the company or website name into a search engine such as Google.com. Typing in the company name will bring up other consumer opinions. They may have complaints such as never receiving the item or slow delivery or bad customer service. There may be praises such as quick delivery, low prices, trustworthy.

For background checks I recommend using Yahoo rather than Google. Yahoo have recently introduced a new toolbar which gives you quick and easy access when you are in a hurry. You can download the toolbar by clicking here.

After doing the background check, see if the order form is processed in a secure site. Usually there is a little button on the form telling you the security level of the website. If you can’t find one look it up in FAQ section or contact customer support.

Almost all vendors in the online market accept Credit Card, Paypal, money orders and bank transfers. The safest way to pay is to use paypal as the vendor never gets access to your personal details. If you are a vendor I recommend you sign up for a merchant account by clicking here.

Cheers and have a good online shopping experience

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Shopping With Style

The internet can be considered as large marketplace made for consumers. The concept of shopping on the internet has been around for many years but only recently have consumers unlocked its true potential allowing businesses - big and small to emerge and advertise in the market.

Internet shopping consists of consumers find a product of interest by visiting the website of the retailer directly, or do a search across many different vendors using a search engine.

With that said I should tell you there are many tricks of the trade that come with internet shopping. I will show you how to secure bargains and shop safely on websites such as
eBay!, shop.com

and other auction sites as well as safely purchasing different types of products from from the many vendors in the online market.

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Cheers and have a good online shopping experience

For more information about internet and online shopping click here.